Identification and Validation of Candidate Genes from Genome-Wide Association Studies

Exploiting the statistical associations coming out from a GWAS experiment to identify and validate candidate genes may be potentially difficult and time consuming. To fill the gap between the identification of candidate genes toward their functional validation onto the trait performance, the prioritization of variants underlying the GWAS-associated regions is necessary. In parallel, recent developments in genomics and statistical methods have been achieved notably in human genetic and they are accordingly being adopted in plant breeding toward the study of the genetic architecture of traits to sustain genetic gains. In this chapter, we aim at providing both theoretical and practical aspects underlying three main options including (1) the MetaGWAS analysis, (2) the statistical fine mapping and (3) the integration of functional data toward the identification and validation of candidate genes from a GWAS experiment.